While the no-talkie and partial talkie DotT are great, full-talkie DotT is absolutely awesome.
> He wants keep the retro aesthetic, which is good, but then wants to include things like DOF and glows...which can technically be done with a palette, but I don't think this is what he is getting at, and could potentially destroy the rigid palettization that makes pixel art what it is
I'm not sure pixel art and retro looks is the solution. There was something unique yet common to all those great games that made them memorable enough that we long for them even today.
As an example, while I don't quite like the whacky universe and style that evolved since Rayman 2, Rayman Origins engine and graphics were stunning, and captures part of that essence. Sadly the gameplay is largely forgettable, almost a rhythm-based party game — I long for something like the first Rayman gameplay — but the graphics part is a step in the right direction.
I feel like Orioto [0-3](browse his tumblr blog for more) tries to captures this essence, and I long for games looking like his work. Given the incredible horsepower we have at hand as of yet, I just can't believe it's not possible.
"Given the incredible horsepower we have at hand as of yet, I just can't believe it's not possible."
I'm reminded of this line from near the beginning of the movie Primer:
"The rest of it is the mercury bath... which you wouId know better than I do, but they're probabIy just showing off. I mean, you have it, you got to use it, right?"
So, my theory is that Day of the Tentacle had voice so early (as optional add-on packs for those rare systems that could use them rather than part of the base install, that's how early this was; voice packs that could fill up your meager little hard drive) that nobody involved realized that game voice acting was "supposed" to suck. System Shock is another example of the same effect. Both of those games are wonderful and completely stand up to the best of modern voice acting. It wasn't until later that voice acting really started to suck hard.
The voice version of DotT is indeed awesome. My favourite example of voice acting in adventure game that you don't want to click through. Too many games rely on this "ask 23 inquiring questions picked from a list" in a way that becomes really boring, with swathes of dialogue to get through.
(Even worse, in my opinion, are those that require that you delve into a certain part of the dialogue tree in order to get an item or otherwise open up something in the game, which means you have to go through the entire dialogue tree even some of the questions seem uninteresting and you don't want to go through with it. DotT did have a few of those, if I remember correctly.)
I agree about the retro pixel art. A retro style just to capture the essence of a golden age is, in my opinion, philosophically harmful; it quickly becomes annoying. There are some games that sort of redeem themselves: "Superbrothers: Sword + Sorcery", which uses ultra-low-rez graphics blown up to full size combined with fluid animation, is pretty good, although I wound the glib, self-referential tone of the game to be a bit obnoxious. Then there are Wadjet Eye games (like Gemini Rue and Primordia), which use some kind of SCUMM-like, really retro engine, and graphics that are something like 320x200, again blown up to full size, but without any modern animation wizardry. The games are so good that it works, but you do get the sense that the time of this kind of game is, and should be, over.
While I loved the zany style of DotT, I never liked the exaggerated "French" drawing style of Monkey Island 3 [1]. Monkey Island 4 was just awful, and the new Monkey Island episodes are downright creepy in its empty-eyed-doll animated characters, and the "enhanced" remake again does a kind of Disney-style makeover that doesn't quite fit. (Among other things the animation has gone from wonderfully zany to just plain. Watch how they animate talking people [3], it's hilarious.) (Of course, part of the problem with MI3-4 and later was that they turned Guybrush from a likeable, sort of innocent hero into an annoying, clueless, condescending moron somewhere between Chris O'Donnell and Chris Elliot. I don't know if it was the voice, or the hair, or whatever, probably a combination of them. It didn't work for me. It wasn't Guybrush.)
A more recent game that creates a cozy and charming, yet contemporary and technologically up-to-date style is Machinarium. Crisp high-rez graphics, charming animation, fun story, pretty much perfect in every way. That's the way to go, I think.
Yes. Actually, I really liked The Dig's plot [spoilers ahead!] until they brought forth the magical alien ghosts. It was basically Rendezvous with Rama reworked with some subpar new-age nonsense.
Another excellent voice acting game: Tim Schafer's Full Throttle.
While the no-talkie and partial talkie DotT are great, full-talkie DotT is absolutely awesome.
> He wants keep the retro aesthetic, which is good, but then wants to include things like DOF and glows...which can technically be done with a palette, but I don't think this is what he is getting at, and could potentially destroy the rigid palettization that makes pixel art what it is
I'm not sure pixel art and retro looks is the solution. There was something unique yet common to all those great games that made them memorable enough that we long for them even today.
As an example, while I don't quite like the whacky universe and style that evolved since Rayman 2, Rayman Origins engine and graphics were stunning, and captures part of that essence. Sadly the gameplay is largely forgettable, almost a rhythm-based party game — I long for something like the first Rayman gameplay — but the graphics part is a step in the right direction.
I feel like Orioto [0-3](browse his tumblr blog for more) tries to captures this essence, and I long for games looking like his work. Given the incredible horsepower we have at hand as of yet, I just can't believe it's not possible.
[0]: http://www.redbubble.com/people/orioto/works/8245345-through...
[1]: http://www.redbubble.com/people/orioto/works/8290902-city-bo...
[2]: http://orioto.tumblr.com/post/15721511369/1200p-1080p-print
[3]: http://orioto.tumblr.com/post/15627728854/1200p-1080p-print